Delivery of a secure software license for a software product and a toolset for creating the software product

A method for delivery of a license-managed toolset for creating a license-managed software product, the method comprising the step of:

• (a) providing an authorization process, the authorization process including the steps of:
• (i) creating a first public and private key pair for a software publisher, and creating a first certificate with the public key using a certificate authority,
• (ii) creating a second public and private key pair for a software program, and creating a second certificate with the software publisher private key, wherein at least one of the second private and public keys is digitally signed by the first private key of the software publisher,
• (iii) creating an authorization program for the software program, and embedding a copy of the first and second certificates and second private key in the authorization program,
• (iv) combining the authorization program with a software program, such that when the software program is invoked on a computer, the authorization program obtains a license for the software program by:
• (1) creating a formatted license request,
• (2) signing the formatted license request using the second public key,
• (3) transmitting the signed formatted license request to a key authority,
• (4) receiving an signed formatted license from the key authority, wherein the license includes license terms, and
• (5) validating the license using the first certificate, such that the license terms are used to control use of the software program;
• (b) implementing the authorization process in a software toolset that is provided by a toolset publisher, wherein when the authorization process is invoked in the software toolset, the toolset publisher is the publisher in the authorization process and the software toolset is the software program in the authorization process, and
• (c) implementing the authorization process in a software product that is provided by a publisher of the software product using the software toolset, wherein when the authorization process is invoked in the software product, the publisher of the software product is the publisher in the authorization process and the software product is the software program in the authorization process, whereby both the software toolset and the software product use the same authorization process to obtain respective licenses.